These quick, sweet pickled beets are a great way to use up some of spring’s bounty. They’re lovely as a sandwich filling, on top of salads, or anywhere else that you’d use store-bought sweet pickles.
Spring has officially sprung here in Atlanta, and our CSA basket is really starting to show it. Last week, we got a big bunch of beets, Swiss chard, a beautiful kohlrabi, spring onions, and a lovely stem of green garlic. If you haven’t cooked with green garlic before, I highly recommend it! Peel off the woody outer layers and it looks sort of like a large green onion. The garlic really shines in this sweet pickled beets recipe.
Did you know that rainbow Swiss chard is related to the beet? I learned this not too long ago, so when I didn’t have quite enough beets to fulfill my pickling desires, I decided to pickle the chard stems along with the beets. I’ve been craving sweet pickles lately, so I opted for sweet pickled beets this time around.
As you can see in the photo, we got two different sorts of beets, so I used one of each: the solid colored beets you’d expect and some gorgeous striped watermelon beets. Watermelon beets don’t taste very different from other beets, but they’ve got those pretty red and white stripes! I think the combination of veggies made for some really delicious, colorful sweet pickled beets!
Sweet Pickled Beets with Chard and Green Garlic
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup beets, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup kohlrabi, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup Swiss chard stems, chopped
- 2 tablespoons green garlic, chopped (you can substitute cloves of garlic if you can’t find green)
- 1 tablespoons onion, chopped
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon each dried dill, green peppercorns, mustard seed, Kosher salt
Method
- Toss the beets, kohlrabi, chard stems, garlic, and onion together in a large bowl, then separate between two pint-sized mason jars (or one quart-sized jar).
- Bring the remaining ingredients to a rolling boil, then pour over the veggies in the jars. If you’re short on liquid, you can top off the jars with a bit of extra apple cider vinegar.
- Chill in the fridge for at least two days before serving. These will keep for about a week in the fridge, though I’ve pushed it to two and lived to tell the tale.
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